Parks and Recreation · 658 quotes
RonYou left. Then about a month later you took Terry with you.
Yeah, well, we needed a mindless factotum and he's the best there is.
Ron Amen. [pause] Then you took April. I didn't want her to go as she had become one of my closest workplace acquaintances, but your offer was too good to pass up so I didn't try to stop her. Then Tom left to run his business, Donna left to run hers. One day, I looked up, just didn't recognize anyone. So I made a decision. An unthinkable decision.
[flashback to Ron walking into Leslie's office]
Hey! Well, my my my, do my eyes deceive me? Is that Ron Swanson?
Ron Hello, Leslie. Hello, April, Larry.
Uh, it's Terry now.
RonOK. As luck would have it-
[Leslie is handed a report from a subordinate]
Just a second. Oh, did you talk to Randy about the vote? Tell the northeast that we need to put pressure on them or else we're gonna be waiting forever and I'm tired of waiting on them, OK? [Leslie turns back to Ron] Sorry, this is a crazy day. So what's up with you, you big lug?
RonNothing important. Just thought you might want to have lunch. Tomorrow?
I would love to! It's been too long! JJ's Diner, 12:30.
RonExcellent. See ya then.
OK!
So Randy says the House is voting tomorrow and they need us in Washington to prep.
Oh my God, really?
Yep.
OK, get us the first flight out of here, grab the Missouri files, meet me at my car. [April hands Leslie her cell, with Ben on the line] Hey babe, I gotta go to Washington. Can you pick up the kids?
[cuts back to 2017]
Aw, oh no, Ron. I stood you up for lunch.
RonYou did, yes. I waited for a while but it was pretty easy to figure out what had happened. Your life seemed pretty hectic.
Is that the rest of the story? That I stood you up? [Ron goes silent] You were going to ask me something. That's why you wanted to have lunch. Ron, you were going-?
RonI was going to ask you for a job. In the federal government. Just saying it out loud feels dirty.
You missed your friends and you wanted to come up to the third floor and work with us again. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been for you. God, why didn't I see that? Ron, I'm so sorry. I should have been a better friend to you.
RonHonestly, Leslie, it's fine. It was a punctuation mark on a sentence that had already been written. My time in government work was over. Sure, I love shutting things down and bleeding the rotting beast from the inside...
Your metaphors are so beautiful.
Ron...but it was time for me to leave. And I didn't feel like explaining why to you or anyone. Everything that happened after - the fight we had, not giving you a heads up when my company took on the Morningstar development, when I bulldozed the nurse's old house - I do regret that. I had a good run here, but after you and Tom and Donna and April and Terry left, I looked around this office, nothing was the same.
Yeah, well, there's a way to fix that.
[Leslie and Ron spend the rest of the night getting drunk, cleaning the office, and rearranging it to look as it was during their time there]
